Reincarnation makes perfect sense from the standpoint of human learning. We need “do overs” to get it right. Most of us in the West (modern world), have a “one and done” view of life. We are born, grow up, grow old, and die. Then we (our souls) go either to heaven or hell, depending, or we just cease to exist. Throughout history, most people have rejected the concept of simply ceasing to exist. They want something more, so they establish religions and rituals that they think will give them a wonderful “afterlife” if they follow the right rules of behavior . . . → Read More: Reincarnation
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 Comments are closed  Blog  afterlife, belief, cards, death, energy, Energy Medicine, God, healing touch, heaven, Hell, heroes of our own life, human learning, John Keats, Life, old souls, one-and-done, past lives, poker, Reiki, reincarnation, seeing through a glass darkly, seeing through the glass darkly, seven deadly sins, sheep and goats, St. Paul, vale of soul-making In one way or another, everyone thinks, “God’s on our side.” This has always been the case. In the religious wars between Protestants and Catholics in the Middle Ages, both sides thought that God was on their side. In the U.S. Civil War, both Tap water catches fire and earthquakes multiply. As a rule, those who own and run oil and gas companies do not explore for fossil fuels in their own backyards. Is it worth ruining our environment to exploit fossil fuels when we are currently able to get the power we need from wind and solar energy? . . . → Read More: God’s On Our Side Comments are closed Blog backyards, Bears Ears, Bible, Bob Dylan, Catholics, Civil War, clean energy, commies, culture, despoil the land, earthquakes, ecology, England, environment, exploitation, fossil fuels, fracking, gender, God, Grand Staircase, greed, head of state, hydroelectric power, love of money, Masters of War, matriarchy, Middle Ages, modern world, National Monuments, North, oil and gas, political interests, political strife, politics, Protestants, queens, reality, religion, religious, religious wars, South, Southeast Asia, tap water, tax laws, U.S. Civil War, vested interests, Vietnam, vote, water, water catches fire, wealth, white men An English poet, Thomas Grey, ended his 1742 poem, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, with what has become a well-known aphorism: “where ignorance is bliss, / ‘Tis folly to be wise.” The part that’s quoted most often is, “Ignorance is bliss.” Considering ignorance bliss has a long history. One of the central stories of both Judaism and Christianity is Eve’s being tempted by Satan to eat the fruit of knowledge and then persuading Adam to do the same. The theme has been important to me for a long time. The title of my 1974 Ph.D. dissertation . . . → Read More: Ignorance Is Bliss Comments are closed Blog blood and soil, Chinese Revolution, French revolution, George Santayana, God, Hitler, ignorance, ignorance is bliss, John Lennon, modern times, Nineteenth century, Old Testament, repeat the past, reversion, Russian revolution, Satan, skin color, temptation, the Beatles, Thomas Grey, Tree of Good and Evil, tribal conflicts, values, Victor Frankenstein By now, you undoubtedly know about the devastating earthquake in Nepal. You may not have heard, however, about the earthquake in SW Michigan. Earthquakes come in all sizes, from the huge and deadly to the minor shake-ups. Michigan’s earthquake was a minor shake-up. When I was growing up in California, we had numerous minor quakes. Even though they always came as a surprise, we learned to recognize them for what they were. After I had grown up and left, California experienced at least two serious quakes with extensive damage and some deaths, one in northern California and one in southern . . . → Read More: Earthquakes Comments are closed Blog airplanes, Aldous Huxley, Alexander the Great, Amish, assimilation, automobiles, bats, bees, belief systems, Big Enders, birds, Brave New World, butterflies, California, carbon paper, Catholics, Chiffon margarine, climate change, Denisovans, drought, earth, earthquake, electronic communication, elimination, evolution, floods, forest and trees, genetic modification, Genghis Khan, geology, GMOs, God, GPS, Gulliver's Travels, herbicides, horses, Islam, Jonathan Swift, Julius Caesar, letters, Life, Little Enders, long distance, Mother Nature, mules, natural disasters, Nature, Neanderthals, Nepal, news, news weeklies, newspapers, northern California, pesticides, phone calls, plate tectonics, Protestants, radio, rear-view cameras, red in tooth and claw, seatbelts, Shia, southern California, Sunni, survival, SW Michigan, Tennyson, tornadoes, trains, tribes, TV, typewriters, volcanic activity, volcanoes, wagons, Western U.S. I recently had two online exchanges with “True Believers.” In my case, both were Christian “literalists” whose “true belief” was in Biblical inerrancy, believing that the Christian Bible is literally the “Word of God” and therefore contains no errors. The belief in inerrancy is more complex than the phrase implies, as there are so many different versions of the ancient texts. My concern is with inerrancy in general rather than which particular form it takes. Christians aren’t the only ones who have an inerrancy faction. Muslims have one, too. Sunnis and Shia are currently in the news for their . . . → Read More: True Believers Comments are closed Blog arguments, Battle of Greasy Grass, Bible stories, Biblical inerrancy, Big Enders, Buddism, Christian, Crusades, Edward de Bono, evidence, fights, God, Greek poems, Hamas, history, Hundred Years War, Iliad, internecine conflicts, Israel, John, literal interpretation, Little Big Horn, Little Enders, Luke, Mark, Mathew, metaphor, Muslim, Native Americans, Odyssey, oral tradition, planet Earth, Real Americans, rock logic, True Believers, warfare, water logic Those of us in the States (and perhaps the rest of the English-speaking world) currently have a wonderful opportunity to observe one of the lesser-known NLP Metaprograms at work: The Rules Metaprogram. Most behavior is “rule governed” in one way or another, so where and how rules apply is important in social interactions. The First Rule is perhaps to whom does a rule apply. Here’s one possibility: My rules for me. Your rules for you. Everyone chooses his or her own rules. This won’t work well in a variety of social situations. Imagine driving in a big city . . . → Read More: Rules Comments are closed Blog accident, atheist, children, contraception, culture, democratic, egalitarian, evolution, fabric, God, Japan, logic, marriage, Maude, metaprogram, metaprograms, NLP, nomination, party, pepperoni, president, rights, rules, same-sex, sex, sexuality, societies, spelling, sports, States, traditional marriage, U.K., U.S. pizza, variety, women |
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